MODULE II WESTERN ART HISTORY

Lesson 3 (April 20,2021) Caught in Between: Modern and Contemporary Art

Midterm Week 7 Deadline: April 24, 2021

Name of Student: Dana Villasorda Barrosa Name of Instructor: Ms. Rosenharr Mae Antogop
Course & Year: BSED-ENGLISH 1 Class Schedule: MF 10:00-11:30 am
Date Submitted: _________________________ Activity No. 7

Back-Track: Pop Art

Pop art as a movement drew inspiration, sources, and even materials from commercial
culture, making it one of the most identifiable and relatable movements in art history.
Based on what you know about pop art, select one item in your home that you think will
be a good inspiration, take off point, and even the material itself, for an artwork. Describe how
you will make use of this item and what your concept is behind the work.
I. Define and paste a picture in each of the following:
1. Contemporary art

 In its most basic sense, the term contemporary art refers to art—namely, painting,
sculpture, photography, installation, performance, and video art—
produced today. Though seemingly simple, the details surrounding this definition
are often a bit fuzzy, as different individuals' interpretations of “today” may
widely and wildly vary. Therefore, the exact starting point of the genre is still
debated; however, many art historians consider the late 1960s or early 1970s (the
end of modern art, or modernism) to be an adequate estimate.
- https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-contemporary-art-definition/

2. Modern art

 Modern art is the creative world's response to the rationalist practices and
perspectives of the new lives and ideas provided by the technological advances of
the industrial age that caused contemporary society to manifest itself in new ways
compared to the past. Artists worked to represent their experience of the newness
of modern life in appropriately innovative ways. Although modern art as a term
applies to a vast number of artistic genres spanning more than a century,
aesthetically speaking, modern art is characterized by the artist's intent to portray
a subject as it exists in the world, according to his or her unique perspective and is
typified by a rejection of accepted or traditional styles and values.
- https://www.theartstory.org/definition/modern-art/history-and-concepts/
3. Optical art

 Op art, also called optical art, branch of mid-20th-century geometric abstract

art that deals with optical illusion. Achieved through the systematic and precise
manipulation of shapes and colours, the effects of Op art can be based either
on perspective illusion or on chromatic tension; in painting, the dominant medium
of Op art, the surface tension is usually maximized to the point at which an actual
pulsation or flickering is perceived by the human eye. In its concern with utterly
abstract formal relationships, Op art is indirectly related to such other 20th-
century styles as Orphism, Constructivism, Suprematism, and Futurism—
particularly the latter because of its emphasis on pictorial movement and
dynamism. The painters of this movement differed from earlier artists working in
geometric styles, however, in their purposeful manipulation of formal
relationships in order to evoke perceptual illusions, ambiguities, and
contradictions in the vision of the viewer.
- https://www.britannica.com/art/Op-art

4. Minimalism

 Minimalism or minimalist art can be seen as extending the abstract idea that art
should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. We
usually think of art as representing an aspect of the real world (a landscape, a
person, or even a tin of soup!); or reflecting an experience such as an emotion or
feeling. With minimalism, no attempt is made to represent an outside reality, the
artist wants the viewer to respond only to what is in front of them. The medium,
(or material) from which it is made, and the form of the work is the reality.
Minimalist painter Frank Stella famously said about his paintings ‘What you see
is what you see’.
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/minimalism
5. Abstract expressionism

 Abstract Expressionism is a term applied to a movement in

American painting that flourished in New York City after World War II,
sometimes referred to as the New York School or, more narrowly, as action
painting. The varied work produced by the Abstract Expressionists resists
definition as a cohesive style; instead, these artists shared an interest in
using abstraction to convey strong emotional or expressive content. Abstract
Expressionism is best known for large-scale paintings that break away from
traditional processes, often taking the canvas off of the easel and using
unconventional materials such as house paint. While Abstract Expressionism
is often considered for its advancements in painting, its ideas had deep
resonance in many mediums, including drawing and sculpture.

- https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/abstract-expressionism/

6. Gutai art

 Written in 1956, the Gutai Art manifesto reads, in part, “We have decided to
pursue enthusiastically the possibilities of pure creativity. We believe that by
merging human qualities and material properties, we can concretely comprehend
abstract space.” The avant-garde art collective known as the Gutai Group formed
in Osaka, Japan, in 1954. Over the 18-year life span of the group, its artists
radically transformed the global modern art scene with their ideas. Written by
Yoshihara Jiro, the founder of group, their complete, 1270-word manifesto
explains in detail their earnest philosophical intentions. It describes the art of the
past as a fraud and an illusion, and insists that true art must contain the spirit of
life. “Let’s bid farewell,” it states, “to the hoaxes piled up on the altars and in the
palaces, the drawing rooms and the antique shops. Lock up these corpses in the
graveyard.” Gutai called for a new art: a spirit-filled, living art that paid equal
respect to the materials used in its realization and to the artist, without whose
participation it could not manifest. Their efforts redefined Japanese artistic
identity in the aftermath of World War II, and became a living demonstration of
 renewed Japanese interest in freedom, individuality and interconnectedness to the
rest of the globe.
- https://www.ideelart.com/magazine/gutai
7. Kinetic art

 In visual art, the term kinetic art, derived from the Greek word kinesis, refers to
works that incorporate real or apparent movement. It explores how things look
when they move, so in its widest definition, kinetic art embraces a huge number
of different art forms, as well as media types and styles. Thus, for instance, it may
include cinematic and animation art, happenings and other types of performance
art such as mime, clockwork/ clocktower figurines, stroboscopic or light-related
artworks (Lumino Kinetic art), land art or any artifact that disappears (snowman)
or undergoes a process of visual change, robotic art, motion graphics and other
artworks created with new media technologies. It also incorporates Op
art paintings, drawings and prints, whose 'motion' is merely an optical illusion.
The most famous works of Kinetic art, however, are various types of hand-
powered or motor-powered sculpture by Jean Tinguely, and mobiles invented
by Alexander Calder, whose movement is caused by air currents.
- http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/kinetic-art.htm

8. Neo-pop art

 Neo-pop is a postmodern art movement of the 1980s. The term refers to artists
influenced by pop art, such as Jeff Koons and Sam Havadtoy in the USA. In the
2000s the work of Takashi Murakami in Japan and in 2009 the Arts
project Nicolas Lepaulmier in French has also been described as neo-pop. Ken
Done in Australia became world famous for his businesslike approach to art
related merchandise including tea towels, key rings, t-shirts, sarongs.
- https://findwords.info/term/neo-pop
 9. Photorealism

 What if you could look at a photo and reproduce it as a drawing or painting?

Well, that's exactly what photorealism was all about. Photorealism was an
American art movement in which artists attempted to recreate the image in a
photo using a different artistic medium such as drawing, pastels, painting,
charcoal, etc. The primary goal of a photorealist was to capture the essence of the
photo on canvas. To do so, the artist would develop the photo, transfer it to a
canvas, and bring it back to life using a different medium. Minimalism, while not
a required factor in photorealistic work, is a primary tenet of the style. Ultimately,
this meant that the image was clean and without clutter. Photorealism came to life
in 1960s through the 1970s in America as an opposing force to Abstract
Expressionism. In its opposition, photorealism aligned itself with Pop Art, and
both fields of art worked with photography in mind.
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/photorealism-definition-artists.html

10. Conceptualism

 Conceptual art is a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual components of
art works. An amalgam of various tendencies rather than a tightly cohesive movement,
Conceptualism took myriad forms, such as performances, happenings, and ephemera.
From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s Conceptual artists produced works and
writings that completely rejected standard ideas of art. Their chief claim - that the
articulation of an artistic idea suffices as a work of art - implied that concerns such as
aesthetics, expression, skill and marketability were all irrelevant standards by which art
was usually judged. So drastically simplified, it might seem to many people that what
passes for Conceptual art is not in fact "art" at all, much as Jackson Pollock's "drip"
 paintings, or Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes (1964), seemed to contradict what previously
had passed for art. But it is important to understand Conceptual art in a succession
of avant-garde movements (Cubism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, etc.) that
succeeded in self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art. Conceptualists put
themselves at the extreme end of this avant-garde tradition. In truth, it is irrelevant
whether this extremely intellectual kind of art matches one's personal views of what art
should be, because the fact remains that Conceptual artists successfully redefine the
concept of a work of art to the extent that their efforts are widely accepted as art by
collectors, gallerists, and museum curators.
- https://www.theartstory.org/movement/conceptual-art/

11. Performance art

 Performance art, a time-based art form that typically features a live presentation to an
audience or to onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts
as acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting. It is generally an event rather than
an artifact, by nature ephemeral, though it is often recorded on video and by means of
still photography.
- https://www.britannica.com/art/performance-art

12. Installation art

 An art installation is a three-dimensional visual artwork, often created for a specific place
(in situ) and designed to change the perception of space. The term “installation”, which
appeared in the 1970’s, generally applies to works created for interior spaces (ie. gallery,
museum); outdoor works are more often referred to as public art, land art, or, to put it
roughly, humans intervening on an environment and putting their “stamp” on it. The
installation, once constructed, is most often expressed in such a three-dimensional setting
as has been mentioned: within a room, where the artist includes the environment as part
of the work, or other factors, which distinguishes their work from simply hanging a 2-D
piece.
 - https://davidcharlesfox.com/what-is-installation-art-description-history-and-
prominent-artists/

13. Earth art

 Earth art, also referred to as Land art or Earthworks, is largely an American movement
that uses the natural landscape to create site-specific structures, art forms, and sculptures.
The movement was an outgrowth of Conceptualism and Minimalism: the beginnings of
the environmental movement and the rampant commoditization of American art in the
late 1960s influenced ideas and works that were, to varying degrees, divorced from the
art market. In addition to the monumentality and simplicity of Minimalist objects, the
artists were drawn to the humble everyday materials of Arte Povera and the participatory
"social sculptures" of Joseph Beuys that stressed performance and creativity in any
environment.
- https://www.theartstory.org/movement/earth-art/#:~:text=Earth%20art%2C
%20also%20referred%20to,%2C%20art%20forms%2C%20and
%20sculptures.

14. Street art

 Street art is unofficial and independent visual art created in public locations for public
visibility. Street art is associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-
graffiti", and guerrilla art.
 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

15. Postmodernism

 Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as
well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural
theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term
is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of
universal truths and objective reality. Postmodernism was a reaction
against modernism. Modernism was generally based on idealism and a utopian vision of
human life and society and a belief in progress. It assumed that certain ultimate
universal principles or truths such as those formulated by religion or science could be
used to understand or explain reality. Modernist artists experimented with form,
technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could find a
way of purely reflecting the modern world.
- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism